If you haven’t heard the latest outcry from Facebook users, let me fill you in. Recently, Facebook switched the emails displayed on users’ profile from their personal email address to a “yourname@facebook.com” unannounced.

Why were users upset with the Facebook email switch

Facebook “forced” the @facebook.com to be the default on Facebook profiles without an official announcement. Because of this, many businesses that use Facebook to allow users to get in contact with them were confused as to why they were not getting any emails. This caused a lot of frustration and a loss of a couple of days work. With this @facebook.com email address users will only be able to retrieve their email messages on the Facebook interface. As you can see that is very inconvenient for people who do not spend every moment on their Facebook page.

In a response to the complaints a Facebook spokeswoman said that the change was not unannounced, and pointed to a short press release which was issued back in April. The release, dated 12th April 2012, says: “Starting today, we’re updating addresses on Facebook to make them consistent across our site. Now, the address people use to get to your timeline and send you email on Facebook will be the same. Updated addresses will be rolled out over the next few weeks.”

Well apparently no one got the memo because everyone seemed to be furious. And further, even though this switch was announced it makes no reference as to why they had to hide the other email addresses from view.

The spokeswoman continued to explain, “We want people to use whatever service is most effective for them.” Apparently Facebook isn’t as aware of their customer needs as they think.

Still continuing to roll out with the Facebook email switch, Facebook has stated if you do not want the email address simply go to your profile, click “Update info,” scroll down to “Contact Info” and click “Edit.” Select with whom you want to share each individual email address and to the right of that choose whether you want your email displayed on your timeline or not by using little gray circles.

I feel that with each new update that Facebook presents its users, more are becoming disgruntled and are only waiting for the next big thing to replace Facebook. I think Facebook should really consider their strategy, as it seems they are losing the mobile battle and on a financial standpoint their stocks haven’t been generating positive results as they still are below their initial public offering price. What are your thoughts? Were you also upset with the email switch?